The Meaning of Leisure for Chinese/Canadians

Abstract

This study examined the meaning of leisure for Chinese/Canadians. Participants (N = 35) completed a diary seven times a day for 12 days when a randomly scheduled watch alarm rang. Participants indicated what activity they were doing, whether it was work, leisure, both, or neither, and their motivations for and needs fulfilled by the activity. Participants primarily engaged in passive leisure activities, researchers and participants often differed in whether they deemed the activity leisure, and participants differentiated between leisure and non-leisure in terms of high intrinsic motivation, low effort, and low introjected reward motivation. In contrast with most Western research, perceived freedom was not an important distinguishing factor. A cross-cultural leisure meaning framework was developed to explain these findings.

Keywords:

• affect
• appraisal
• Chinese
• intrinsic motivation
• leisure
• perceived freedom

Acknowledgments

Preparation of this article was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to the lead author. The authors would like to thank the University of Alberta Population Research Lab staff for their assistance recruiting participants.

Notes

*p < .0001.

* p < .05.

** p < .01.

*** p < .001.

**** p < .0001.